Telum II
IBM's second-generation, AI-integrated mainframe processor, powering the z17 system, with an on-chip AI accelerator delivering 24 TOPS.
Telum II is not a Power processor, but it is the clearest evidence of IBM's on-chip AI inference strategy, which has already extended into Power11 via the Spyre Accelerator. Its AI accelerator executes matrix multiplications as native instructions rather than through memory-mapped I/O, delivering four times the AI throughput of the original Telum chip.
Related Terms
Spyre Accelerator
IBM's PCIe-form-factor AI accelerator card for on-premises generative and traditional AI inference, with confirmed Power11 compatibility from December 2025.
AIU (Artificial Intelligence Unit)
IBM Research's family of experimental AI accelerator chips, the upstream research lineage feeding IBM's production AI silicon designs.